So, I am only on level 2, so maybe I am getting a bit ahead of myself here, but… I felt like I just had to ask this. (just advanced to level 3, but still have some vocab from level 2 to complete)
Why does 中 keep appearing in sentences that seem to have nothing to do with the work. For example, 「チャット中」<- why does it need to be there? Does it need to be there? I saw it on Facebook Messenger. A similar thing happened with the example sentences for 中(なか). It really confused me as the English equivalents didn’t include any of the translations for the vocabulary/kanji.
Also, Jisho (the site I use for checking translations, readings, uses, etc) didn’t return anything for the quoted example above, so I don’t believe it’s a single word at the very least. Again, do correct me if I am wrong. <3
Perhaps it’s some grammatical thing? I am not too sure how to search grammatical rules up, so I didn’t know what to do to find the answer, hence why I came here. I am going to be starting my grammar studies tomorrow, or Monday at the latest. I’m looking forward to learning more about the wonderful language.
Thanks to anyone who helps me out of this problem. I’m probably just getting held up on something that’s explained later on, but… Yeah. Anyway, I am just waffling now. Have a good day/night. I’ll read any responses tomorrow as I need to sleep. Happy learning!
Ah. Also, if I somehow missed something, please tell me. I apologise if that is the case. I hope that’s not the reality of the situation, though… Haha.
Oh my! Such a quick response. I was only going to wait for a few minutes before I went to bed and here I am, replying to an answer! Nice.
Thank you for responding. I really appreciate it. That would certainly explain a lot, actually. I’ll try to research it a bit more tomorrow so that I can understand it more. Or should I learn other bits of grammar/vocab beforehand? Sorry about all of the questions.
中 is used as a suffix to indicate something is in progress / ongoing. I think that’s probably what you’re seeing (but can’t say for sure without context).
Also, Jisho (the site I use for checking translations, readings, uses, etc) didn’t return anything for the quoted example above, so I don’t believe it’s a single word at the very least.
You’re correct, it’s not. As Seanblue mentioned, if you search for 中 by itself on Jisho, you get the following as one of the definitions:
Basically, 中 (ちゅう) is a single word that means ‘during’ or ‘while’ whatever it’s after. For example, in the sentence above, ピアニストの演奏中 means ‘during the pianist’s performance’.
Aye, it’s a fairly common construction. For example, if you visit shops in Japan, they’ll often have a tag hanging on the door that reads 営業中 (えいぎょうちゅう, roughly “now conducting business”) when they’re open, and 準備中 (じゅんびちゅう, roughly “now making preparations”) when they’re closed.
And for something to look forward to, 営業中 you’ll learn on WK at Level 24. 準備中 isn’t directly on WK, but 準備 is on WK at Level 23 and since it can mean preparation, the context should be clear.
Related; someone gifted me a T-shirt that says 日本語勉強中, so “currently studying Japanese”
Also, maybe I missed someone else mentioning it, but if 中 is a suffix to some span of time, it’s read as じゅう instead of ちゅう, and means “All through~.” An example of this is a vocab term on WK, 年中 (ねんじゅう) which means “all throughout the year,” and 一晩中 (ひとばんじゅう) means “all night long.”
